After arresting "high school girl murderer" Jang Yun-gi, 23, and taking over the case, police were found to have conveyed key investigative developments to the suspect's family member, an active-duty police officer.
According to Yonhap News and police on the 6th, after Jang Yun-gi was apprehended, an official at Gwangju Gwangsan Police Station contacted Jang's father, Inspector Jang, by mobile phone and informed him of matters related to investigative procedures, including search-and-seizure and an arrest warrant application.
Immediately after Jang Yun-gi's arrest, dozens of phone calls were reportedly exchanged between Inspector Jang and Gwangsan Police Station. These calls were said to have mixed in various matters, including persuading the suspect through family, guidance on securing custody, and the arrest process.
Police said the process did not differ from ordinary case handling, such as linking the suspect and guardian by phone inside a statement recording room with the entire investigative team present.
However, the fact of these calls was not entered into the investigative record. It also has not been fully confirmed who contacted whom and with what content regarding the call logs numbering in the dozens.
Prosecutors identified the matter while conducting supplementary investigations, including a search of Jang Yun-gi's family home, and are separately reviewing whether investigative team officials may be criminally liable for leaking official secrets.
A prosecution official said, "At this stage, it is difficult to disclose the details."
Police said there was no procedural problem. A police official said, "The detention and search-and-seizure of Jang Yun-gi, who committed murder and was caught, were situations anyone could anticipate," adding, "Individual contact with the guardian was mainly handled by the lowest-ranking staff with no connection to Inspector Jang."
The Korean National Police Agency headquarters is conducting an internal affairs probe into various suspicions surrounding the officers who handled the Jang Yun-gi case. The subjects include the circumstances under which key evidence—such as the "damaged sex doll" found in Jang's rented room and the SUV used to tail the victim and flee after the crime—was handed over to the family early in the investigation.
In addition, reasons the forensic report related to the sex doll was not sent to prosecutors in a timely manner, and how the address and entry passcode of Jang Yun-gi's rented room were conveyed to Inspector Jang, have also reportedly become subjects of the internal probe.